I have extreme difficulty sailing upwind in 20 mph winds with my TI. I have tried furling my sail to all lenghts. I am sitting in the aft seat and I am the only person sailing the TI. My tramps are folded up on the amas. My sail is pulled fairly tight. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I have extreme difficulty sailing upwind in 20 mph winds with my TI. I have tried furling my sail to all lenghts. I am sitting in the aft seat and I am the only person sailing the TI. My tramps are folded up on the amas. My sail is pulled fairly tight. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

You should be able to sail twenty with full sail, but it's all about your comfort. Let the sheet go a little, ie. loosen the sail some. You want a slight luff along the mast for best sail trim. It's also easier to learn sail trim by setting the sail and using the rudder to find the sweet spot than to trim the sail directly. When things are right, the boat will feel like it's taking off.

Read some books about sailing, you have a boomless, unstayed cat rig and most books are about bermuda rigs but the general info helps. Search the forum too, lots of great stuff written here, God knows I've become a better, faster sailor since doing my homework. Also, search the net for sailing forums on boats like the Nonsuch, which is an unstayed cat rigged mono hull with a wishbone boom. Lots of interesting articles available just by searching cat rig.

I disagree with kayakman7 re the luff at the mast. That luff bubble is creating drag. You get the most power with smooth air flow over both sides of the sail.

Upwind in 20, pull the sail until it bends the mast a little bit with the boat pointed directly upwind and sail luffing, then steer off the wind. When the fluttering completely disappears from the luff of the sail and the inside telltale flies straight back, you are sailing as high upwind as you should be.

Despite opening with a disagreement with kman7, my actual technique to maintain optimal upwind angle is to always stay on the edge of having a bubble in the luff up at the mast. How do I know I'm at the edge? I let it flutter a little bit. OK, found it, now head off a tiny bit to make it go away. Oops, was that too much, or did the wind shift, or did my speed make the apparent wind change? Better steer back up until I see a little bubble again. There it is. Head off a tiny bit. Lather, rinse, repeat. For several decades.

So about half the time I actually do have that undesirable little bubble up at the mast.

This all changes a bit when you reef because the sail only rolls up in one direction. It means that on one tack, the mast will screw up the airflow on the windward side of the sail, while on the other tack it will screw up the airflow on the lee side. Neither of these is a good thing, but you gotta do what you gotta do. If the boat is overpowered, reefing is faster than not reefing.